Hexa K500 Watch Review

Hexa K500 Watch Review


by Matthew Boston
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$500 - 999, Hexa

Hexa are a fairly recently formed, Florida based company that specialize in creating mechanical dive watches at reasonable prices. Their watches feature original designs and are intended for serious divers as opposed to being aimed at ‘desk divers’. This is their first model, the name for it coming from the combination of the watch’s dive rating (500m) and a K which apparently comes from the word “Kraken” the name given to the giant mythical ocean-dwelling monster.

The design while slightly reminiscent of the U series watches by Sinn –particularly its blocky hands and indexes and bezel treatment- has marked out its own territory through various differences – for instance the crown position and case design.

Hexa K500 – Case and Strap

The case design is strikingly modern with a minimalistic, utilitarian feel to it with curvature at a minimum. Its an imposing 45 x 51mm and with its rugged appearance its a design that clearly makes its purpose known. The Hexa K500 comes in three different case finishes, in either brushed, bead blasted, and PVD black. The PVD version comes with a matching bezel while the brushed and bead blasted versions can be orderd with either the bezel matching the case or with a black PVD one.

Hexa K500 Watch

Hexa K500 Watch

The case is made from 316L surgical grade Stainless steel and is 44mm wide, 51mm lug to lug and 14.75mm thick and is one of the more unusual aspects of the Hexa K500. Its central section is slightly rounded and its overall quite chunky and angular in shape. It also features an unusally positioned crown, on the upper left of the case at the between 10 and 11 o’clock position and protected on both sides by large crown guards that seamlessly compliment the lines of the rest of the case. This placement of the crown makes the watch appear less wide than it would have it been in the traditional place. The crown is long and features three tracks of teeth to aid with grip. Although its placement will make it a non-typical way of setting and adjusting and may test the wearers dexterity! However I think its certainly an interesting design feature and looks pretty cool.

One of the reasons for this unconventional crown position is for the purpose of added comfort, its designed this way to help avoid the crown digging into your wrist, regardless of how much the strap is tightened the crown should not dig in, for instance when your hand is bent back a traditionally placemed would dig in. This advantage arguably counteracts any annoyances that may be caused by its position when winding and setting the Hexa K500, which could be unwieldy for those used to traditionally placed crowns. The unconventionally positioned crown is also supposed to help keep it out of the way of accidental knocks.

To protect it from water the Hexa K500 has a screw down crown and triple O-Rings, the caseback is screw down and engraved with the HEXA star motif at the center and a diagonally striped pattern. Around the perimeter are some basic information and the watch’s serial number.

Changing straps is made easy thanks to drilled lugs, the strap also has a novel feature: its scented with Vanilla.

Hexa K500 – Movement

The solidly reliable workhorse Seiko automatic movement Sii NE15/Seiko 6R15 powers the Hexa K500. To ensure maximum accuracy the movement has been adjusted to 6 positions in-house and has a hacking function so that it can be set more precisely. It has a 50 hour power reserve and 23 jewels.

Hexa K500 – Dial

The Hexa K500 dial has large chunky ‘block’ hands, the hour and minute hands are done in grey, while the seconds hand is in red with a rectangular pointer that is luminous. Apparently according to Hexa the design of the dial is based on “interstate signage” so that it can be read “at a glance” and the dial is certainly very legible.

At the four o’clock position is a date display, its very subtly done and at first glance is almost unnoteable, but its clearly legible using white numerals on a black background and a nice addition, indication of the date being in my opinion a useful feature.

Hexa K500 Lum

Hexa K500 Lume

The lume used on The Hexa K500 is by Lum-Tec and has a reputation for making one of the best luminescent materials on the market. It has been applied to the hands and indexes as well as the 12hr marker on the bezel. It glows brightly with a green hue.

Hexa K500 – Conclusion and Pricing

The Hexa K500 is a charcterful tool watch with a striking design that is utilitarian and yet has unusual aspects such as its crown position -which will either attract or repel people- and the vanilla scented strap which is a nice touch. All in all a quality watch for the price that stands out from the crowd, the Hexa K500 is priced at $663 on a rubberstrap and $738 with a bracelet.

Hexa K500 - Technical Specifications

Hexa K500 – Technical Specifications

You’ll find a nice Hands-On review of the Hexa by Adam Morin on aBlogToWatch.

    Author Bio

    Articles by Matthew Boston

    CONTRIBUTOR

    Matthew Boston has worked in the computer graphics industry for 17 years in various parts of the world, currently residing back home in the UK. His interest in watches was first piqued as a youngster when he was fascinated by a Seiko digital watch he received. He's also founder of UniqueWatchGuide which is dedicated to sharing the news about timepieces that are unusual, unconventional and more often than not unobtainable.